You may not be immediately familiar with the name Hunt Sales but you are well versed in his work. From the iconic drum intro to Iggy Pop’s classic Lust For Life to the smooth pocket of Todd Rundgren’s We Gotta Get You A Woman to the ferocity of Under The God from David Bowie’s Tin Machine project, Hunt Sales has made a career out of playing on classic recordings. On January 25 he will explore new territory with his first solo record Get Your Shit Together.
Listen below to the Misplaced Straws Conversation with Hunt Sales:
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On finally releasing his first solo record – I didn’t go looking for this record deal, it just one of those being in a certain place at a certain time and running into someone who says “hey, want to do some recording for us?”. 1:38
On the sound of the new record – It sounds like something between an old Stax record and a Motorhead record. 5:30
On the personal nature of his writing – I write about things I know, I write about loss, there’s things about drugs. 10:35
On Todd Rundgren’s Runt, was it a solo record or a group? – It was his (Rundgren’s) solo record, but…there was some chemistry going on. 13:20
That record came out of meeting him and jamming with him at a club in New York. 14:20
On why he wasn’t involved in the follow-up, The Ballad of Todd Rundgren – I don’t know, that’s a great question. He had another another drummer he was working with. Maybe he felt this guy was more of a professional, I have no clue. 15:40
On meeting David Bowie and Iggy Pop – David had gotten Iggy a record deal for RCA and recorded The Idiot, then it was time for them to tour and they called my brother (Tony) and I up. 18:00
We toured with David playing keyboards, not long after the tour for The Idiot we went in the studio and did Lust For Life. 19:20
On recording the intro to Lust For Life – There was a drum beat that was on Armed Forces radio in Berlin, it had this weird kind of drum beat that was similar to the cartoon “George of the Jungle”, that beat is somewhere between George of the Jungle and the Supremes’ You Can’t Hurry Love. 19:40
On his early influences – When I was 6 or 7 Earl Palmer (Little Richard’s drummer) was doing a recording session with my father (Soupy Sales)…I went to that session and saw Earl Palmer play and said “that’s what I want to do”. 20:20
On reconnecting with Bowie for Tin Machine – My brother had run into David at a wrap party for the Glass Spider Tour, I hadn’t seen David in years. David said “Where’s the drummer? Get the drummer.”. 27:00
David was ready to do something different, he mentioned he met this guitar player, Reeves Gabrels. 28:00
It was kind of a holdover from David, my brother and I playing with Iggy but without Iggy. 29:20
What Reeves brought into that band was a different sensibility on guitar. 29:40
After about a week in the studio we started accumulating a bunch of material and thought “this is not a David Bowie record, this is a band”. 30:10
On how he ended up singing two songs on Tin Machine II – Well, without sounding like a complete asshole, because I’m a badass! 33:00
On David as a person – The thing I really liked about him, he could be a very sweet, warm person, forget the records he sold and the songs he wrote, as a person. 34:40
Regardless of how rich he was or how famous, it was a band. – 37:40
On Bowie leaving to do the Sound & Vision solo tour rather than a full tour for Tin Machine I – That was financially and business motivated by the people around him…that kind of fucked up the first record. 39:00
On drugs in the band – David had his own problem at the beginning of Tin Machine with substance. Though I used, I showed up and did my work…I was a functioning addict. 39:50
On David after Tin Machine – The last few records he made were brilliant and I think that after Tin Machine he made a lot of records that were not very good. 42:10
I heard a lot of great work out of the guy and I heard a bunch of shit. 43:30
On taking part in Bowie alum tours – I was hit on a few years ago about doing a Tin Machine tour and getting someone else to sing. My answer was to find another drummer. 44:20
I’ll write my own songs, I’m not gonna ride off the back of him. I think that’s a bunch of shit. 45.15
Order Get Your Shit Together HERE
